Monthly Archives: September 2005

While Robert Bennett is drawing insufficient criticism for blaming Scooter Libby for Judith Miller’s stay in prison, his brother Bill Bennett is taking unjustified heat for comments he made on the subject of abortion. Bennett (Bill, that is) argued that it would be morally reprehensible to abort all black babies even though doing so would reduce the crime rate (the crime rate for African-Americans is much higher than the national »

New York Times reporter Judith Miller has finally been released from jail, after agreeing to testify to what everyone already knew, i.e., that she discussed Valerie Plame with Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. I wrote about this last night; like many others, I expressed puzzlement over why Miller has finally agreed to name Libby, when he gave her and other journalists permission to do so a year ago. »

Scott reproduced the email I sent to Marvin Kalb, explaining some of the reasons why we know the Dan Rather documents were fakes, here. My email to Mr. Kalb was prompted by his message to a reader, in which Kalb expressed agnosticism as to whether the documents were genuine: Dear Mr. Thomas: I know you believe that the documents were forged. I have yet to see the evidence, which I »

The editors of National Review weigh in on Ronnie Earle’s indictment of Tom DeLay: Following the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, conservatives are left wondering what to make of the charges. The answer is simple. The charges are absurd and should be thrown out of court. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has charged DeLay with conspiracy to make a contribution to a political party in violation of »

…seems to be what Dan Rather and Mary Mapes are hypothesizing. So this cartoon by John Addis, which he did a year ago, is timely once again–and still very funny. Thanks to John for emailing it to us; click to enlarge. »

The AP is deeply disturbed about Army recruiting: “Army Faces Worst Recruiting Slump In Years.” Dafydd ab Hugh, a mathematician, takes a look at the numbers, and isn’t. I think the AP got one thing right, however. The media’s insistently one-sided coverage of the war in Iraq undoubtedly makes the task of military recruiters harder. UPDATE: Several liberals emailed us a link to this AP story. As usual, they are »

Dan Rather and Mary Mapes are apparently out to rehabilitate themselves through the assertion of several themes related to Rathergate. In his interview with Marvin Kalb, Rather reiterates several of the themes: the Bush National Guard story was accurate, there is something sinister about the exposure of the documents as fradulent, and the documents were not proved to be fraudulent in the Thornburgh-Boccardi report or elsewhere. In Mapes’s telling, “meshing” »

Hugh Hewitt was on PBS today discussing the media’s Hurricane Katrina coverage; the transcript is here. Reader Greg Miller writes: In a boxing match, the referee would have called the fight about the half way through the segment. He’s right. An excerpt: JEFFREY BROWN: And, Mr. Hewitt, same question, what did you like and what did you dislike? HUGH HEWITT: Well, Keith just said they did not report an ordinary »

New York Times reporter Judith Miller has been released from federal custody after agreeing to testify before the grand jury that is investigating, interminably, the Valerie Plame “leak.” Miller says that she agreed to testify after being released from her promise of confidentiality by her source, who apparently is “Scooter” Libby, Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. What does it all mean? Beats me. It’s hardly a secret that Miller met »

The mission of Karen Hughes to the Muslim Middle East seems pathetically misbegotten to me. The thinking underlying the mission appears to be that antipathy to the United States is based on a vast misunderstanding. Perhaps if only the president’s emissary grovels while wearing a pearl necklace just purchased from the noted Egyptian designer Azza Fahmi and displays a pendent medallion inscribed with the Arabic words for “love, sincerity, friendship,” »

Ever since 9/11 “changed everything,” Democrats and other leftists have been looking for an event that would change everything back, or at least change something. The search — extending, among other locales, from Niger to Downing Street to al Qaqaa to Guantanamo Bay to Crawford — has been largely fruitless. Then came New Orleans. Politically speaking, I never understood why Hurricane Katrina might change anything. Unlike 9/11, it taught us »

President Bush’s approval rating is at 45 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics average. That’s just about where it was pre-Hurricane Katrina. I wonder how the MSM’s approval rating would compare to its pre-Katrina level. »

The New York Times’ Public Editor, Byron Calame, is trying to enforce the newspaper’s corrections policy as it relates to editorial columnists, especially far-lefties Frank Rich and Paul Krugman. The Times has a corrections policy; its liberal columnists just don’t want to follow it, and the editorial page editor, Gail Collins, apparently hasn’t tried to make them. As a result, as Calame details, urban legends have been perpetuated in the »

There is a lot to be said about Ronnie Earle’s indictment yesterday of Tom DeLay–and, by the way, a corrupt DA like Earle can procure an indictment of pretty much anyone he chooses, so I refuse to give Earle cover by attributing the indictment to the grand jury–but the most interesting question to me is, why did he do it? To help the Democratic Party, obviously; but I mean the »

Much of the news coverage of Ronnie Earle’s indictment of Tom DeLay–about which more later–has linked the indictment to the SEC investigation of Bill Frist’s sale of HCA stock, with the theme being “the GOP’s ethics problems.” It’s hard to say which issue is more trivial, although the SEC investigation is at least being carried out in good faith, unlike Earle’s partisan hit-job. For those who haven’t seen Frist’s side »

The Senate has confirmed John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. The vote was 78-22. The Democrats divided evenly 22-22, with “Independent” James Jeffords voting in favor of Judge Roberts. The willingness of half the Senate Democrats to vote against a candidate of Judge Roberts’s ability, accomplishment, and temperament is a disgrace, and one that will likely change the “rules of engagement” with respect to the Supreme Court »

Over the years, we have had a lot of fun with the Corrections section off the New York Times. That section constitutes a running commentary on the bias so often manifested in that newspaper; even more strikingly, it sometimes reveals a stunning lack of high school-level knowledge of history, science and literature on the part of Times reporters and editors. Today’s Corrections include a mind-blowing example of this genre: The »